I was taking a nose dive somewhere between eleven and twelve because my sister had died and I was practicing something that siblings do which is follow in their footsteps and die as well.

The principle element in a performance is risk, and if you're losing interest then by scaring yourself to death the audience will feel it and boy it'll wake them up.

All bad jazz sounds like Woody Woodpecker.

I had been playing single note instruments and I wanted to hear a guitar played as a piano.

I think if you are writing an instrumental you are dealing with more of an aesthetic in a sense but a lyric is more of a putting yourself on the line and a much more expensive exercise.

I am evidence that you don't have to sell a lot of records or succeed in the usual way to have a big audience and a job.

The bulk of my set is instrumental and you have to give yourself and the audience some relief because a performance is not about great guitar playing it's really about entertainment.

The first music I was exposed to was Stravinsky and I loved it but I don't remember it.

Musically, I am still hooked and just hypnotized by the sound of the guitar itself. I mean, a guitar sounds good if you drop it on the floor.

I have always thought of myself as a performer first and way down the line as a recording artist.

I would say that if you don't feel like talking to the crowd something is wrong and if you force yourself to talk to them things will happen and to that extent things aren't choreographed.

I worshipped dead men for their strength, forgetting I was strong.

Death is just one more Path. One you'll come to in time.

Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind The thief doth fear each bush an officer.

When I pick up the ball and it feels nice and light and small I know I'm going to have a good day. But if I picked it up and it's big and heavy, I know I'm liable to get into a little trouble.

Constructing a social system that tends to those who agree with it is a piece of cake compared to constructing one that makes those who disagree with it want to obey its principles.

I think, as an actor, you're always traveling. There's a sense of dislocation sometimes from home.

Deceit is the mark of evil. Even if the evil messenger does not appear in person, the test is the same.

There is an old saying that the course of civilization is a race between catastrophe and education. In a democracy such as ours, we must make sure that education wins the race.

I also like flyfishing - maybe I would have figured a way to make a living out of that?

But if you've ever felt love, you'll know how painful it is to suffer for love.